•We present a real time fuzzy logic power management strategy.•This strategy is applied to hybrid electric vehicle dynamic model.•Three configurations evaluated during a drive cycle.•The hydrogen consumption is analysed for the three configurations. This paper presents real time fuzzy logic controller (FLC) approach used to design a power management strategy for a hybrid electric vehicle and to protect the battery from overcharging during the repetitive braking energy accumulation. The fuel cell (FC) and battery (B)/supercapacitor (SC) are the primary and secondary power sources, respectively. This paper analyzes and evaluates the performance of the three configurations, FC/B, FC/SC and FC/B/SC during real time driving conditions and unknown driving cycle. The MATLAB/Simulink and SimPowerSystems software packages are used to model the electrical and mechanical elements of hybrid vehicles and implement a fuzzy logic strategy.